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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #360288
Research Project: Genetics and Breeding of Lettuce, Spinach, Melon, and Related Species to Improve Production and Consumer-related Traits

Location: Crop Improvement and Protection Research

Title: Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia L., breeding lines differ in secondary metabolite content according to market type

Author
item TRIERWEILER, BERNARD - Max Rubner-Institut (MRI)
item FRECHEN, MATTHIAS - Max Rubner-Institut (MRI)
item SOUKUP, SEBASTIAN - Max Rubner-Institut (MRI)
item EGERT, BJORN - Max Rubner-Institut (MRI)
item BALDERMANN, SUSANNE - Leibniz Institute
item SANGUANSIL, SUPANNIKA - The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) - Taiwan
item McCreight, James - Jim
item KULLING, SABINE - Max Rubner-Institut (MRI)
item DHILLON, NARINDER - The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) - Taiwan

Submitted to: Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2019
Publication Date: 4/30/2019
Citation: Trierweiler, B., Frechen, M.A., Soukup, S.T., Egert, B., Baldermann, S., Sanguansil, S., Mccreight, J.D., Kulling, S.E., Dhillon, N.P. 2019. Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia L., breeding lines differ in secondary metabolite content according to market type. Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality. 92:106-115. https://doi.org/10.5073/JABFQ.2019.092.015.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5073/JABFQ.2019.092.015

Interpretive Summary: Bitter gourd is a popular vegetable in South and Southeast Asia that contributes important nutrients to the diet and provide several health benefits such as anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic effects. Commercial bitter gourd breeders emphasize large plants and concentrated yield. The breeding program at the World Vegetable Center developed numerous breeding lines better suited for home and school gardens. The sample of 11 bitter gourd breeding lines include in the study compared favorably to three commercially available bitter gourd cultivars for six phytonutrients (saponins, carotenoids, chlorophyll a and b, and vitamin C), and fruit yield and quality.

Technical Abstract: Bitter gourd is an important commercial cucurbitaceous vegetable of enormous medicinal value in Asia. We report here the characterization and evaluation of open-pollinated (OP) South Asian and Southeast Asian types of bitter gourd breeding lines, developed at the World Vegetable Center, for horticultural and biochemical traits and their comparisons with commercial OP and F1 hybrid cultivars. Marketable yields of South Asian and of Southeast Asian type breeding lines were comparable to the OP ‘BARI Karella 1’ and the commercial F1 hybrid ‘Benteng’, respectively. The bitter gourd cultivars and breeding lines included in this study, exhibited specific patterns for six phytonutrients (saponins, carotenoids, chlorophyll a and b, and vitamin C): in general the commercial cultivars, regardless of type, and South Asian type breeding lines contained higher levels of secondary metabolites than the Southeast Asian bitter gourd breeding lines.